Blurred Lines
by The r3wr1t3r
Summary: Erwin is a genius, everyone knows that, but sometimes things just don't go your way. When Erwin's plan to expose the government doesn't pan out, the scouts find themselves in a precarious situation. Now labeled as rebels against humanity, and both the Garrison and Military Police regiments after them how will they survive? Well, they always make it out somehow.


**Attack on Titan, hands down one of the best anime ever conceived. I feel like I just have to write a story about it even, if it's just for my own satisfaction. Historia progressed so much as a character, and that scene of her slapping that vial out of her father's hand while the music played was absolutely perfect. I also feel like Eren progressed a lot too, realizing that he shouldn't have had the power that he has and realizing that he's not as important as he and everyone else think he is. So, let me know what you think and leave any thoughts you had on season 3.**

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 **Chapter 1: What a Hopeless World**

It broke her heart.

Eren was hunched over, crying his heart out into the deafening warzone but she was the only one who could hear it. She could hear him laugh and cry at the same time, the sign of a person who had gone mad with grief. He raved about how useless he was, letting another person close to him die. Mikasa turned her head to titan as it devoured what was left of Hannes.

As Eren continued to bawl, she looked around her noticing the desperate position of everyone. Titans stood everywhere, slaughtering people as some desperately fought and others wept. Heads were being decapitated, limbs were being torn apart, unrecognizable pieces of flesh were flying across the battle field. Hearing thunderous roar, Mikasa turned her head to the sound. It looked Reiner was finally starting to break free of all the titans grasping on to him.

Turning back to the scene in front of her, she could she the blood stained teeth of the titan as it finished devouring Hannes, taunting them with its disgusting smile. Mikasa knew she should have felt anger, but she couldn't. The only emotion she could feel now was hopelessness, was this really how they were going to go? They had tried, and they had tried but it looks like the world didn't seem to care how much they struggled. How much they had lost. But that's just how the world works right? It didn't help that one man that she thought would never back down was now effectively broken. She could feel tears pricking her eyes. Mikasa was never afraid to die, still things seemed different now. She wasn't crying for her, maybe for everyone else she supposed?

For all the hope they had placed in the resurgence of humanity, and now they would all die here. For Armin because he was so bright and kind, he really didn't deserve to get roped into this. Now the world would miss out on his special mind and innocent soul.

And especially for Eren, for now he was lying there broken as glass. He would never avenge his mother, he would never achieve the thing he craved more than air itself.

And a little for herself, for all life that she would never get to spend with her friends.

With Eren.

Everything that they had done had been for nothing, did this life meant nothing after all?

Mikasa glanced down at the scarf she was wearing, it was broken and battered but it still remained tightly wrapped her neck. That's right.. the scarf.

The symbol that not everything in world was terrible, that there was a place where she could belong. That there were things worth protecting. That they were things that could bring her joy.

That there were people worth loving.

She brought a hand up to touch the scarf before looking back over to Eren. He was still crying, pounding his fists into the dirt.

"I'm worthless! Damnit you haven't changed a bit!" Eren yelled berating himself. Mikasa looked on sadly, they were doing to die, of that she was certain, but before they did she would die with no regrets.

"Eren." She said in a tone that caught him by surprise. He slowly sat up and looked at her. Her eyes stunned him, they were full of joy and admiration. He found himself breathless, not knowing how to react.

"You know that not true." She said with such conviction that it caused him to slightly open his jaw. What did she mean? Look around, he was supposed to be humanity's savior and now they were all doomed! He couldn't even save Hannes!

"listen to me Eren. I have to tell you something." Mikasa said. Eren's eyes widened. Was she saying her dying words? Did she really believe it was hopeless too.

Time seemed to freeze, and in that moment, even though a battle of biblical proportions raged on beside them, it seemed like they were the only ones there. Mikasa eyes seemed to hold his entire being. The small smile plastered onto her face captivated him. The emotion in her voice shook him.

"You've always been by my side. Thank you." Mikasa said attempting to explain how much him being there meant to her.

"You've showed me how to live with purpose. Thank you." Mikasa said attempting to explain how much he affected her.

"And you wrapped this scarf around me. Thank you." she said attempting to explain how he was everything good in her life.

"You're everything to me, I don't know what I would have been without you." She said practically crying now. He could only sit there stunned at the words she was saying, his body was literally shaking.

Without warning she jumped into his chest, hugging him as hard as possible. She dug her face into his chest and refused to let go.

"I Love you." She said.

After that she started to cry , and Eren couldn't be more dumbstruck. Here she was, the most powerful person he knew, so venerable and defeated. Her words were powerful, and Eren wished more than anything he could somehow form a response, but his throat seemed to be shut closed. The titan turned towards them. Eren closed his eyes, his arms reached to instinctively wrap around Mikasa. This was it, all there was left to do was hug Mikasa and close his eyes as he waited for their lives to be over. This nightmare to be over.

But he couldn't, he couldn't let it end like this.

He looked down at the girl hanging to his torso. After everything, he would make sure Mikasa live. She had sacrificed so much, she didn't have to be here. She chose to follow him, to try and protect him, no matter how much he pushed her away. And now she would die because of where he led her.

"You can't win, if you don't fight!" he remembered his nine-year-old self say to Mikasa. But was even a chance? He couldn't go titan and Mikasa was too injured, no one was around to save them it was over.

But for some reason he body wouldn't let him quit.

To save humanity, to save his friends, to save Mikasa. He would fight.

He roughly pushed Mikasa off of him, trying to ignore the look of heartbreak and confusion. He stood up and faced the titan. The one who had destroyed his life. Now instead of despair all Eren felt was anger.

"Don't worry Mikasa, there's still plenty of life left to live." He said as his fingers seemed to magically heal at the right time. Mikasa 's face morphed into one of shock.

"And you've got to fight for it!" he yelled closing his hand into a fist and titan approached to grab him.

"Eren no!" Mikasa yelled grasping for him.

He yelled as hard as he could, steeling his resolve. Before throwing a rather pathetic punch at the titan's hand. Even though the punch was ineffective the noise seemed to resonate throughout the battle field. To Mikasa's surprise the titan didn't immediately try and devour Eren.

He yelled once again a threw another punch that seemed to have missed completely and Mikasa couldn't help but think it was just a desperate gamble, but then the ground started to shake and Mikasa had to brace herself with both her hands as she almost toppled over the vibrations of the ground. What was happening!?

Mikasa heard a bone shaking roar and whipped her head to the sky. Flying above her was 10-meter class titan. What was going on?! Why wasn't it attacking them. Her body froze when she saw the titan smash into other one, its teeth sinking into other one's neck.

Before she knew it, titans poured in at every angle, jumping onto the titan and literally tearing it apart piece by piece. Her mind was doing back flips, it didn't make any sense. Why were all these titans protecting them, if it was one then maybe it could have been a titan shifter, but this many it made no sense.

Her mind snapped back to the current situation when she felt herself being picked up. There in front of her was Eren, who had already grabbed her legs.

"Hurry grab on!" he yelled. She quickly did as she was told. Eren then took off it in whatever direction, she didn't really know. She glanced back at the carnage that was taking place behind her. Pieces of flesh were sent flying and bones were being shattered as the titans literally tore each other apart to destroy the smiling titan.

She looked at Eren, did he do this? It was the only thing that made sense. It just seemed like the tians were following his will.

Suddenly she felt them stop and Eren turned to his left. There she could see Reiner, in his titan form, barreling towards them.

"Get away from me you bastards! I'll kill you!" Eren yelled at him at the top of his lungs, and she swore she saw Reiner stumble for a second. Before she could comprehend what was happening all of titans that were previously attacking the smiling titan, set their sights on Reiner.

They all charged forward, and eventually smacked into Reiner with the same ferocity that they had done with previous titan. They swamped Reiner and he soon he couldn't move. Her eyes were brought away from the scene, as she saw Armin pull next to them with a horse.

"Get on!" he yelled and Eren didn't waste anytime. He dropped her to the floor, then he grabbed her by the waist, careful as to not hurt her ribs. He lifted her up so she could put a foot in the stirrup and she managed to swing her leg over with some help. He jumped up on the horse and she wrapped her arms around his torso as to not fall off.

"Don't miss the opportunity! Full retreat!" she could hear Erwin shout, and then they were off.

Mikasa couldn't really believe it. They had by, some miracle, made it out alive. For once the world seemed to be on their side, and once again Eren had brought some hope when she thought all was lost.

Eren though was having different thoughts. He really thought he was going insane from all the events in the past days. Reiner and Bertholt, his own friends had turned on him. How could they? After everything they had been through, after the bonds they had formed, they were actually monsters, but why did not completely seem that way? Reiner legitimately seemed conflicted, but what could they possibly feel was worth killing thousands of people?! He just couldn't understand.

Then there was the fact that Hannes had sacrificed his life for him. Another person to add to the list of people that died because he couldn't protect them. Eren cried, as he thought about Hannes from the times in his youth. It seemed like life was so carefree back then.

What was this cruel world? In that moment he thought about everything. His mother, his dad, Mikasa, Armin, the countless hours training, his first battle at Trost, Annie, and Reiner, Bertholt and Ymir. Why? He worked so hard, he had trained his ass of everyday! His eyes still stinging from tears. He had made everyone believe they could win the fight for humanity! He had the most drive, the passion! He was gifted with this legendary ability, and yet….

Eren realized something very critical in this moment, and what they had been through had just solidified it. There were people you couldn't save. He had always thought that he could, if he just trained hard enough, if he had just believed hard enough, he could eradicate all the titans and no one would have to die. He was so naïve. Eren remembered squad Levi. Sometimes the harsh reality was, you had to make a choice and not everyone would live from the result of that choice. Eren looked back at the girl behind him who seemed to have shut her eyes waiting for when they would arrive.

He glanced over at Armin, who was focused on nothing but the road ahead of him, probably to distract himself from all the life that had just been lost. Would a choice have to come up between them or humanity?

Eren didn't want to think about it.

Then there was a slight other thing that was bothering him. When Mikasa had unknowingly given him the motivation to fight, she said she had loved him. That wasn't that crazy, they were as close as two people could be. Still, the way she said it, with such conviction, made him think that it was a bit more. No, he decided. That was crazy. Still he hadn't known Mikasa really thought of him in that way, "Everything to me, I don't know what I do without you.", she had said. She was annoying most times, always acting like his mom and showing him up, but it was starting to make a little sense as to why. Why she babied him, why she nagged at him.

Why she still kept that dumb scarf.

In about another ten minutes they had finally reached Wall Rose again. The sun was setting, bringing a close to this ugly day. Eren with the rest of his friends strode up to the solider barracks as Mikasa finally opened her eyes. Jumping off his horse, Eren turned towards Mikasa. She gently slid off the horse, and Eren helped her get down onto the floor.

"We'll call a medic for you." Eren said to her, but she didn't reply. Eren watched as all the soldiers tied their horses up and unloaded their things. He saw bodies being dragged by carts, medics rushing the fields in order to heal all the wounded. He clenched his fists.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a couple people come up to Erwin as he was getting patched up, talking about something really important from the looks of it

Armin returned fairly quickly with a medic in tow and soon Mikasa was being lifted up in a stretcher. She stopped for a moment looking at Eren.

"Eren-" she started, but she was cut off.

"Don't worry about me right now, you're if worse shape than I am." Eren said not even facing to look at her. Normally she would argue, but she didn't.

Mikasa was whisked away and now Eren was left with Jean and Armin. Even though it was close to 12 am, the barracks was still bustling. It seemed like none of them could catch any sleep after all.

"Armin." Eren started after hours of silence. Armin and Jean turned to give him their attention.

"I found the titan that killed my mother." Eren said somberly. Both Armin's and Jean's eyes widened in surprise at this revelation.

"It killed Hannes, I thought you should know." Eren said painfully, tears threatening to fall from his face. Armin nearly dropped to the floor.

"No way, Haness.." Armin said struck with surprise.

"He sacrificed himself, to save me. I couldn't do a single thing damnit!" Eren said practically yelling. A few tears flowed freely from his face, as Armin and Jean looked on. Eren took a minute to calm himself down again.

"There was something weird that happened though. I don't know what happened, but, I was just trying to protect Mikasa, and I felt so much anger. Next thing I knew, the titans just started to jump onto the titan that killed my mom. I don't really know what happened." Eren explained, as Armin took a second to take all of it in.

"Yea that is strange, I was wondering what had happened then too." Armin said placing a hand on his chin.

"Reiner and Bertholt were talking some strange things too. I think it would be best if you heard everything, so we can get some answers." Eren said. Armin and Jean looked at each other before they nodded. So Eren told them everything.

"A home town, outside the walls? Maybe a place that only has titan shifters?" Armin said thinking out loud to himself.

"What is that coordinate? They said you could be one who had it." Jean chipped in. Eren sighed, it was all too confusing, He really knew nothing. Noticing Connie out of the corner of his eye, he turned to face him, but what he saw surprised.

An overemotional Krista was balling her eyes out, while Connie attempted to calm her down. That's right, in the end Ymir decided to take off with them. Eren knew that Ymir knew more about what was going on than he did, he only wished he knew what was going on inside her head when they were being held by Reiner and Bertholt. Still, he looked at Krista crying, at least she was safe.

Suddenly all of the scouts stood to attention, putting their fists over their hearts. Eren and the rest of his friends followed as Erwin came out of the barracks. Eren glanced at his hollow sleeve, an arm he lost because of him. Levi was at his left and Hange was on his right, making sure he was okay.

"There has been an ordered evacuation of wall Rose, all of the residents will be evacuated to an underground location underneath Sina. In the morning we will help sweep all of Wall Rose to make sure no more titans remain." Erwin said authoritatively.

"Yes sir!" they all responded. Erwin nodded, satisfied.

"Eren." Erwin stated.

"Yes sir." Eren answered.

"Come with me." Erwin said turning around. Eren wasted no time and ran to catch up with the commander as the rest of the scouts looked on.

One Week Later

The meeting with Erwin was procedure. He asked questions about Reiner, Bertholt, and Ymir and Eren answered them all. After that we was let go, and for the following week they swept Wall Rose for Titans. They hadn't really finished, but the authorities had decreed it clear in order to stop a riot that would happen if they ran out of food.

Now he, Armin, and Mikasa were in the barracks one again.

"Me and Jean sat down and we figured out what made the titans act that way." Armin started.

"It was you, you're the coordinate. It's why they really wanted you." Armin finished. Eren looked at his hand in surprise. Mikasa, however didn't seem to react.

"Of course, that just our theory." Jean said jumping in.

"But it doesn't make sense without assuming that." Jean continued.

"And if this power is as great for all those people to die for, you better make sure you use it right." Jean said making sure Eren understood the responsibility placed on his soldiers. Eren clenched his hand.

"I will kill all the titans, I will plug wall Maria, and I will kill Reiner and Bertholt. It's my duty." Eren stated. Everyone just stared at him, not really knowing what to say. The statements he made where familiar, but they seemed different somehow.

"Good." Jean said turning and walking away. Armin sighed.

"Well are you sure you're all right Mikasa? It's only been a week. It doesn't seem like that's not enough time for you to recover." Armin noted. Mikasa opened her mouth to answer, but Eren beat her to it.

"It's not, she's still in pain." Eren stated.

"It matters little. I should be fine." Mikasa said quietly.

"It does matter. You're only out of the infirmary, because you want to keep an eye on me." Eren said again, and Mikasa's eyes widened slightly.

"You should take care of yourself Mikasa. It's going to get you killed." Eren stated, but he didn't seem like he was annoyed unlike the previous times Mikasa babied him.

"You're a person too. Think about yourself." Eren said. He then turned on his heel and walked off as well. Armin watched the interaction with curiosity, Eren was different. Too different. He supposed this world could change the unchangeable. Armin switched his gaze to Mikasa and saw she was lost in thought also.

"Hey let's head out." Armin said. Mikasa nodded silently.

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 **Well that's all I got. This chapter is just a little set up for the story, and I made some changes just to help the relationships between characters change a bit, Eren and Mikasa hint hint. As for the pairing for this fic, it's determined but I hope to make it a little interesting. Oh well guess you'll have to see! P.S love the Mikasa Eren scene from the anime, like everyone does.**


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